We're Always This Close (Almost, Almost)
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Something always just came between them...Keenler. OneShot.


_I'm finding myself falling in love with this pairing more and more as we go on. Ressler is just a_ babe _._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, only the mistakes._

Elizabeth Keen had been a transfer, and she was still reasonably new to the job. The reason that she had needed a transfer in the first place was because she had just gone through a bad break up with her husband and needed to get some distance between herself and her old life. She had been paired with Donald Ressler because Harold Cooper had thought that they would work well together—given Don was no nonsense and didn't ask any prying questions. He simply wasn't interested in the personal lives of his, and expected the same in return.

Which was exactly what Liz needed.

At first, she had been quiet, coming to terms with the change of pace and environment. But she was observant, and she picked up on the slightest of things quicker than most people. Thankfully, though, she was quiet about her observations. And that's what made Don more confident about having her as a partner. The longer they were partnered, the more interested Don became in her. Yes, she was quiet, but she was strong, and she was smart, and in their first month together, she saved his life twice. One of those times, she took the bullet instead of him.

It wasn't anything serious, just a graze to her thigh because she had been jumping out of the way and pushing him out of the way.

But it was enough for Don to trust her, and he didn't trust easily.

Slowly, they moved from being partners to friends. Harold was surprised, but he didn't comment on it. Don had always worked better when he was alone, or in charge of a team and calling the shots. While Liz was happy to follow his lead, if she had a differing opinion, she had no problem with telling him so. It caused some tension, but it always had a good outcome. He was happy with his decision to pair them together, and they were quickly becoming the pair with the highest success rate in their department.

Late night stake outs ended up revealing a couple of things about each of them. They started small. Liz had a weakness for peppy Disney starlets who had entered into the music industry, including Miley Cyrus and her crazy antics. Don admitted that he had a signed tee-shirt by Adam Levine that he kept folded in his safe next to his mothers pearls and his fathers watch. Liz's ultimate celebrity crush was Jeremy Renner and Don's was Margot Robbie. Liz had an addiction to orange tic-tacs and Don always made sure to have a pack of mint Eclipses in his car.

Then things had gotten a little more private. Liz had been adopted when she was younger by a friend of her fathers after both of her parents were killed in a car crash. Don had a perfect, picket-fenced childhood until he was seventeen when his best friend had been shot in an armed store robbery, and that was what had prompted him into a career in law enforcement. Liz had walked in on her husband of three years cheating on her and Don's longest relationship had been all of three months, because he found it hard to open up. Liz was scared that she wasn't going to be able to trust a man again with her heart, and Don worried that he was going to be one of those men who woke up when he was sixty and only had his job.

One night, when they were hot on the trail of an elusive criminal named Raymond Reddington, they had fallen asleep together on the couch in Liz's office. Don had woken first, and he hadn't moved as he looked down at Liz with her head on his shoulder. When she had finally opened her eyes, they had stared at each other for a long time, not saying a word. Don's eyes had dropped to her mouth and Liz's stomach was doing this crazy flip-flop thing that hadn't happened since her early days with Tom. He began to cant his head forward when Aram Mojtabai had burst into the room, announcing that there had been a sighting of Reddington.

They hadn't mentioned that moment they had shared over the next few weeks when they both threw themselves back into the Reddington case.

The next close encounter was after Reddington had been found and apprehended. He was attempting to make a deal with Cooper and some of the other higher ups. Neither Don or Liz really cared what was going on, all they knew and cared about was that they had brought down the Number 1 on the FBI's Wanted List, and they were out celebrating with Aram, Meera Malik and Samar Navabi. They were all pretty drunk, especially Aram, and Don couldn't keep his eyes off Liz. She was laughing and talking with Meera, who she had also grown quite close with over the past few months. She was still wearing her usual work suit, except she had taken off the jacket and undone a couple of the top buttons of the rose coloured blouse she was wearing. Her hair was down as well...She had been letting it get a bit longer, and it had a nice little curl to the ends. Not that Don would ever say that to her face of course.

They walked home together afterwards, given the pub had just been a block away from Liz's apartment and Don lived just a few streets over. Don insisted on walking her up to her floor, and then to her door. Liz had made a joke about how if he was this chivalrous with all the woman in his life, he would definitely manage to sustain a longer relationship. Don had given her a half smile and made an off-handed comment about how he didn't need any woman but her in his life.

It had felt as though the air had been sucked out of the hallway, Liz's hands freezing where she had been fumbling with her keys. She jutted her chin forward and looked up at him, her eyes squinting slightly, and Don had run his tongue over his lower lip, noting with interest that her pupils dilated as she followed the movement. Then there had been a loud yell and a thud as Liz's neighbours started up one of their usual loud mouthed, early morning arguments. The moment was broken, and Don quickly said goodnight and shoved his hands into his pockets, heading back down the hallway toward the elevator.

Liz dreamed about Don that night.

The way he had been looking at her all night, sitting across from her at the booth they had all been at. He had been the most sober out of all of them, only drinking a couple of beers while the rest of them had been throwing back spirits. Every now and then he would catch her eye and give her this little half smile that she had only ever seen him give her, and _every single time_ she got that flutter in her stomach that she was finding herself fighting every time she had been around her partner lately. And the way that he was biting down on his lower lip whenever their knees would bump under the table and their fingers would brush on the table top.

She would be lying if she said that this was the first time she had dreamed about Don.

After that second close call, it seemed as though things just kept happening that pushed them closer together. Work got even busier. Cooper had come to some sort of hush-hush agreement with Reddington, and they were now part of a new task force which was hunting down criminals with his help. That meant that Don and Liz were almost together. There were a lot of late nights spent, falling asleep in their office chairs or on one anothers couches when they were pouring over files at home. And even when they weren't actually physically together, they would text or be on the phone.

It was probably even more intimate than a normal relationship, because they were literally trusting their lives to one another

"You need to get some rest," Don commented as his fingers flew over the keyboard in front of him.

"I will when you will," Liz replied back, her tone slightly more terse than she had expected give how tired she was. They had been running on black coffee and adrenaline since a shoot out almost twenty-four hours ago, and the whole Post Office was quickly loosing steam. Don and Liz were in her office, both sitting on the floor on either side of her coffee table.

"How about you get an hour now, then I wake you up and I'll get an hour then? That way there's always one of us working on this case," Don reasoned with her, rubbing a hand over his eyes. Liz sighed and reached out for her coffee cup, and then pursed her lips when she saw it was empty. "I really don't think you need a refill of that," he commented.

"Yeah, I know," Liz groaned. "Okay. Okay, that sounds like a plan." She moved off the floor and onto the couch, stretching out her legs and making herself as comfortable as she could. "One hour, okay? And then you better wake me up." Her eyes were already closing as she finished her sentence and Don looked over at her with a smile as she instantly slipped into sleep. He had no doubt that she wouldn't forgive him if he didn't wake her up in an hour, so he noted the time and then went back to work.

It was a little after three when Don got up from where he had been sitting cross-legged on the ground and stretched, wincing as his neck cracked as he rolled it from side to side. He walked around the coffee table and leaned over Liz. She was still asleep, although it was clear that it was only a light slumber, because he could see her eyes moving beneath her lids. He reached down to trace a finger against the side of her face, running down her cheek and under her chin. He couldn't help lifting his thumb to touch it to her lower lip, feeling the softness under his finger.

"Has it already been an hour?" Liz mumbled out, and he snatched back his hand, quickly letting it fall to his side. She blinked up at him, her eyes adorable and dewy from sleep and he swallowed hard.

"Yeah. But you can definitely take some more time, that's absolutely fine," he assured her.

"No, no," Liz yawned as she moved her legs off the couch, resting her feet on the ground and shaking her head. "You should get some sleep." She patted the couch next to her and he sat down, already feeling his body begin to give into the exhaustion the second he leaned back against the cushions.

"Maybe just a few minutes," he admitted.

"Okay," Liz turned her head to smile at him. Don forced himself to keep his eyes open, because right at this moment, everything felt relaxed and warm, and he liked the way that Liz was staring at him. They slipped into that entrancing moment where everything else didn't matter anymore, and all he could see was the softness in her eyes and the curve of her mouth, and that was when he decided that they had entered that moment one to many times.

He leaned forward and captured her mouth with his, kissing her softly.

"Oi! We have a lead! We need you two to—" Meera burst through the door and then stopped short when she saw Don and Liz pressed together. "Uh," she quickly tried to recover. "Uh, so, we're moving out. We gotta go," she turned on her heel and walked out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her. Don and Liz were frozen, an inch apart, before Don let out a short laugh.

"Always _this_ close," he huffed out. The worry creasing Liz's face relaxed and she shook her head, letting out a laugh of her own.

"We better go," she whispered, squeezing his knee and getting up. Don sighed but followed suit, walking out of the room after her.

 _Let me know what you pretties think!_

 _Your reviews always make my day :) x_


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